


The Girl

by KittyCait1609



Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 01:54:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyCait1609/pseuds/KittyCait1609
Summary: Mary may have been the first woman Tosh was ever physically involved with but she wasn’t the first woman she had ever been attracted to.





	The Girl

Like most things in Toshiko Sato’s life, it had begun with technology and Tosh’s love of puzzles. 

Her friends at university; The posh girl Bella (‘Arabella Ursula Dawkins-McRae’ as the tall blonde had introduced herself during Fresher’s Week’), fellow computer geek Matt and the highly fun but very shy Geeta; were messing around on the computers in the main library, programming codes and passing them around for the others to crack. 

Bella was flirting with Matt as she tried to unsuccessfully crack his code, “Okay, so this is definitely not a pigpen cypher...” Bella fluttered long mascara streaked eyelashes at him. “Nope, guess you’ll have to give up Bel” Matt laughed. “Oh but maybe another clue and I’ll get it” she leaned forward, purring in a manner she presumed to be seductive and flashing the slightest bit of skin under her top. “Sorry Bel, no clues. Give up?” Matt looked at her, not caring in the slightest for the very obvious come-ons from the heiress. “You know the rules Bella” Geeta unexpectedly interjected “no more than one clue, and if you don’t get it then it passes to the next person. So that means it’ll be Tosh’s chance next.” 

Tosh, looked up at the mention of her name. “Oh well if Bella surrenders, I’ll try my best. No promises though.” Bella and Geeta both looked at her, smiling “Try, oh Toshi we both know you’ll have it sussed in under a minute”, Matt nodded at her agreeing with the compliment. “Actually, go for it Tosh” Bella had conceded defeat, encouraging Matt to show Tosh the encrypted message. It was 5 words: Z, VH, PVC. (QXFFC UTDDV) 

Chances are, Matt had chosen to scramble the alphabet so that letters were randomised, which made it slightly harder for her to figure the message out. However, in the few months she had known him, Matthew Taylor was ever so slightly well _predictable_. This meant that the chances of the letters in the code matching any letters in the actual message was slim, which ruled out eleven letters including one vowel, U. Tosh knew the first letter was either A or I since both were acceptable words. And since Matt seemed slightly more tense than usual this possibly led to the message being slightly personal, in which case Z would equal I. 

A few minutes later, and she had settled on the idea of the second word potentially being ‘am’ which uncovered more of the message. I AM -A-. (----- ----A), she twirled her pen in her fingers as she looked down at the sheet of paper on her lap. “Want your allowed one clue?” Matt enquired, he wasn’t trying to insult Tosh’s intellect but the question did vaguely irritate her. “Maybe if I don’t have it in 5 minutes Matt” she muttered. 

Debating what words ended in an 'a" and featured double letters, she felt a tap on her arm. Bella. “This one’s a toughie, isn’t it Tosh. Matt’s really worked hard to make this code hard to crack” she glanced up to notice her friends waiting for her to indicate for a clue. But Toshiko Sato was not going to give in that easy, she hated asking for help. It made her look weak. 

It was at that moment she spun around in her chair to see _Her_. Dark brown hair, wavy and down past her shoulders. The most piercing green eyes, which shone like emeralds against the backdrop of pale, unblemished skin, and legs which seemed to go on for miles half-hidden by a dark navy pencil skirt. Tosh couldn’t breathe and her heart seemed to lose its rhythm, skipping seconds between beats. 

“Earth calling Toshiko” Matt broke the spell which had taken over, “sorry Matt, what did you say?” she asked slightly breathlessly. “Do you want that clue yet? It’s been 10 minutes since I last asked, and since I gave Bella a clue it’s only fair you should have one.” 

“Umm, no thanks Matt.” She returned to the task at hand, before pausing “actually, yes I’ll take a clue”. Tosh decided to try and finish the puzzle quickly, maybe that way she can get another look at the beautiful girl who had captivated her a few minutes ago. “Ok” Matt paused, thinking of a hint to give. “None of the letters in the code are next to the letters they correspond with.” ‘That was still cryptic enough to make her work for the solution’ he thought, palms slightly more sweaty as the moments passed without anyone figuring out his message. 

“Thank you for that Matthew” Tosh grinned, mentally checking off letters that matched his helpful comment. Eventually, she pieced together more of the code, “right so I’m thinking the last word may be Bella” Matt’s eyes flickered for a moment which indicated that she was correct in her assumption. I AM -A-. (----- BELLA)... she mulled it over, trying various letters in the third word as that looked to be the most solvable.

“Oh Matt” she thought she had finally solved it, and nervously offered it to her friend. Matt, was shaking as he took the paper from her, he gulped as he confirmed that she had correctly solved the coded message. 

“Well, what does it say?” Bella broke in looking between her friends. “Matt, Tosh? Is anyone going to tell us the answer?” Matt looked anxiously at Tosh as he passed Bella the paper. 

“I am gay. (Sorry Bella)” Bella’s eyes widened as she acknowledged the words. Matt turned away trying to cover up the redness that was engulfing his face. “Oh Matthew Taylor, you have nothing to apologise for.” Bella smiled warmly as her, Geeta and Tosh all offered a very teary Matt a hug and whispered words of reassurance. 

“I um, wanted to tell you all from the day we were sat in the pub after our evening lecture was cancelled” Matt’s voice was cracking under the emotional strain of his confession. “But, well, I chickened out of it despite having downed four ciders for dutch courage.” 

Days later and Toshiko and Matt were walking back to their flat after the day’s lectures, when Toshiko suddenly turned to Matt and sheepishly confessed “I was distracted by the most gorgeous woman, you know when I was supposed to be working out your code”. Matt did a double take, “wait, so you...” Tosh flushed pink “I’m not sure what I am, but I know that she was beautiful”. 

“Oh, okay” he looked at her, offering a similar smile to the one she gave him the other day. “I fancy guys, you know” she hastily added “had the biggest crush on Adam Ant when I was 13” she giggled. “Mum used to play his records when I was little and as I grew up I saw a few videos on MTV, and god he was so good looking” she bit her lip at the memory of her younger self dancing round the house attempting to copy the dance from the ‘Prince Charming’ video. 

“Flipping heck, glad I’m not the only one to find him cute” Matt lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear the conversation. “I was 5 or 6, saw him on Top of the Pops one night whilst I was sat on the sofa squeezed between my older siblings. Knew then and there I liked boys. My sister Jen had a poster of him on her wall, used to sneak into her room just to stare at that picture.”

He looped his arm around Tosh’s shoulder “anyway, point is Tosh you are a brilliant person and well if you fancy lasses as well as lads then that’s fine.” He leaned his head on her shoulder, “in fact, it just means we may have more in common besides our love of technology and science”. They continued their way to the flat, discussing everything from music and video games to the year’s Nobel Prize winners, both feeling ten times lighter than they’d done earlier.


End file.
